Vegan Superfood Granola Recipe With Kale (Yes, Kale!)

Introducing: Kale Granola! That’s right. Kale made way into your smoothies, soups, salads, and chips, and now it’s in your very own homemade superfood granola recipe.

Kale is anywhere and everywhere. It’s the go-to superfood attraction and readily available in most supermarkets. And if you think kale’s potential has been exhausted at this point, you couldn’t be more wrong. The following kale granola recipe is an easy way to make your granola that much healthier and unique.

You can make this granola recipe with a dehydrator or the oven. You can also replace the dried fruit, nuts, and seeds components with those you like the best. The cranberries are tart and sweet, balancing well with the more earthy ingredients in this recipe, but you could also use chopped dried apricots, dried figs, or dried raisins. Experiment with the nuts and seeds components by introducing pecans, macadamias, chia seeds, peanuts, hazelnuts, or cashews. Whatever you do, keep the kale in the recipe – it’s what makes it so special and unique. Meanwhile, other greens won’t really hold their shape and overall integrity after being cooked (kale stays in form and gets crisp). Enjoy!

Drain and rinse the dried cranberries. In a large bowl, add the kale, coconut oil, and sea salt. Massage with clean hands. Add the sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, almonds, walnuts, and flax seeds. Mix together until all is evenly combined.

In a food processor or blender, add the dates, coconut, and about 1/2 cup water. Blend until evenly combined and smooth. You may need to add more water to achieve a smoother consistency. Pour this mixture over the kale mixture and massage with clean hands so that all ingredients are equally covered with the date sauce and the ingredients are all evenly distributed.

There are two ways you can cook this granola. To keep it definitively raw, you can use a dehydrator to slow “cook” the granola. Spread the mixture out on a ParaFlexx sheet across 2 dehydrator trays and let it dehydrate at 145 degrees Fahrenheit for 4 hours. After 4 hours, transfer the kale granola to the mesh trays and dehydrate at 125 degrees Fahrenheit for 12 hours, or overnight.

The other way to cook the granola is to preheat the oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit, spread the kale granola on parchment paper-lined baking sheets and cook in the oven with the door slightly ajar for about 30 minutes. Be sure to check on the granola on and off for the last 10 minutes to avoid burning. Let cook before eating or packaging.

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